2019-20 Finish: 41-41 (7th in West)

Season Highlight: 

Pushing Dallas to six games in the playoffs

Is it legal to put a playoff series loss in the season highlight? Whatever, I’m doing it. The Mavericks were a surging team that climbed to the second seed, but the Suns jumped out to a 2-0 lead despite being the major underdog in a 2 vs 7 matchup. Unfortunately, that’s as far as it got as the Mavs won the next four games to advance.

Season Lowlight: 

Having Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins on the bench all season

Trading for Durant was a great move as we’ll talk about in a minute but seeing the big boys of the league dominate while Phoenix was just not quite enough to contend in any real sense. Seeing Rudy Gay and Dennis Schroeder overachieve and get the Suns to the playoffs was probably nice and all but knowing what could have been with a healthy Durant and Cousins probably hurt a bit.

Best Trade: 

Phoenix sends Al Horford and Kemba Walker to Chicago for Kevin Durant, Gary Trent Jr. and 2022 1st (CHI).

The Suns probably walked away with all the most valuable pieces in this trade. Walker may still be a great player and contributor, but the Bulls are trying to dump Horford’s contract as part of a rebuild while Phoenix has a breakout young wing in Trent Jr. plus Durant. It took some patience given Durant had to sit all season, the main thing that made this trade even an option, but the wait may pay off now that the wait is likely over.

Worst Trade: 

None?

Penny’s trade record, at least for last season, was just about as clean as the shiny dome on top of his head. There weren’t any trades that I noticed that I would really classify as bad much less ones that affected the Suns in a major negative way.

Other Notable Trades:

— Phoenix sends Rudy Gay, Dennis Schroder, Tre Jones, 2021 2nd (OKC) and 2021 2nd (PHI) to Toronto for Kyle Lowry.

This trade just went down and it’s one that is aimed at striking at the top dogs in the league. Already armed with Jimmy Butler and Durant on the wing, the Suns went out to find a point guard worthy enough to make a big three in the Grand Canyon State and they may have done just that.

— Phoenix sends 2020 2nd (ATL), 2020 2nd (IND), 2020 2nd (NO) and 25 GM points to Cleveland for 2020 1st (CLE) and 2020 2nd (BOS).

The culmination of seemingly a million trades in the late summer where Phoenix bought up a bunch of seconds (not going to include all of them in this section) using GM points and managed to flip them for a late first and another second.

Free Agency:

The Suns have three pending free agents, Michael Carter-Williams, Bruno Caboclo and DeMarcus Cousins. All three are pretty likely to stay and the Suns have a few more spots open after that to fill with more contributors.

Star:

Kevin Durant - F

I might be breaking the rules again since Durant didn’t play at all last season and thus wasn’t the star of the team. But he’s the big deal going forward and thus deserves this spot. Much of Penny’s hopes to regrow his hair championship hopes rest on Durant’s shoulders. He’s in the tier with Giannis, LeBron and Davis in terms of unstoppable NLL forces.

Goat: ???

Honestly, there weren’t many underachievers on the team, at least that stuck around. Isaiah Thomas was bad, but he was on a minimum contract and only lasted 32 games, so his negative impact was minimal. Tyson Chandler might be another, but not much was expected out of him despite starting 54 games. He was there to rebound (he had 10.5 per game) and block shots (1.5 per game). Not all that much to complain about in Phoenix.

Draft Grade:

Here are my grades with one exception. Tre Jones was among Phoenix’s draft picks but he has since been traded so he’s not included.

RJ Hampton (23rd): B

Hampton was once one of the top prospects of his class but doesn’t seem to have improved much since high school which brought his stock down. His all-around game looks good for a wing. If he can get a handle on his shooting percentages this pick could wind up being a steal.

Brayden’s Grade on Hampton: A+

Robert Woodard (36th): B+

Of the second-round guys, Woodward was one of my favorite wings. He’s got great defensive potential and his 3-point shooting was great his sophomore year was great. The tricky thing is that the nearly 43 percent shooting might have just been an anomaly.

Brayden’s Grade on Woodard: B-

JWalk’s Overall Grade: lol

Nenjabin’s Team Grade: A

The Future: